


Cross Your Heart

by thirty2flavors



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Flirting, Pre-Relationship, siren Sasha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 22:36:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16942014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thirty2flavors/pseuds/thirty2flavors
Summary: “It was an accident,” said Sasha stubbornly, arms folded. “Don’t read into it.”“Okay,” said Rhys, who was already five chapters in and quite enjoying the story.--In the Atlas biodome, Sasha accidentally opens up, and Rhys ends up with yet another secret to keep.





	Cross Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Secret sirens, right? All the rage. Pure self-indulgence, spurred on by recent Borderlands 3 rumours (which, to be clear, were unfortunately not about Sasha being a siren). 
> 
> AU, obviously, but mostly following along canon to this point, mid-episode 3 biodome.

Rhys was having a very strange week.

Just as he began to acclimatize to one insane situation, a new, more ridiculous one presented itself. Roughly, he thought the pattern seemed to be this:

  1. Something ridiculous would happen. (For example, turning up for a promotion to discover his boss had been murdered.) 
  2. Rhys would take measures to adjust to the new reality. (For example, embezzling ten million dollars in order to steal the murderer’s crucial vault key deal out from under him.) 
  3. Something even more ridiculous would happen, rendering previous adjustment moot. (For example, the vault key being a fake all along, and the ten million dollars self-destructing.) 



Eventually, it ought to stop surprising him. He thought he was getting better at it. When they wound up in an old Atlas base in the middle of nowhere, he took it in stride. Hacking their systems to shut off their turrets? No biggie. He even managed to put a flower in Sasha’s hair without stammering too badly or getting suplexed into the dirt. 

So getting attacked by angry flying jellyfish wasn’t much of a shock (at least, apart from the literal sting of their tentacles). Nor was the way he somehow managed to topple over the railing of the platform, the fifteen-foot drop to the ground below, or even the genuine concern on Sasha’s face when she saw it happen.

No, the real surprise was the way he only fell a foot before he stopped, suspended in mid-air by a force he couldn’t feel or explain.

The air around him shimmered. Rhys looked down, and the blood drained from his face. Falling was bad. Mysteriously _not_ falling? Also very bad, his stomach decided. 

“Uh,” said Rhys, voice cracking. “W-what..? Is happening?”

“Shit,” hissed Sasha, over on the platform where gravity was still working properly. Rhys’ attention snapped back to her, frozen with her left arm outstretched and her eyes as round as Gortys. “ _Shit_ ,” she said again. 

“Sasha?” he called back, staring at her dumbly, transfixed by her fingers as they reached out for him—and then he noticed the swarm of jellyfish behind her. “Sasha, watch out for—”

He didn’t get to finish the sentence before he was falling again, only it wasn’t really falling—it was slow and controlled and he had time to find his feet, even if his legs felt like jelly. Overhead, Sasha spun around, left arm raised defensively; a pulse of more shimmering light burst forth, and the jellyfish fell to the ground, sliced clean in half.

Rhys’ mouth dropped open. 

Never one to miss an opportunity to make things more uncomfortable, Handsome Jack flickered into view beside him, equally dumbstruck. 

“Holy crap,” said Jack, sounding more awed and more intrigued than Rhys had yet heard him. “She’s a _siren_.”

For once, Rhys barely noticed him. All his attention was locked on Sasha, who leapt over the railing with the lift halfway to the ground and landed lightly on her feet, looking… frightened. Why was she frightened? Sure, Rhys was no expert on sirens, but on the rare times Rhys had indulged the fantasy long enough to imagine meeting one of the infamously powerful women, he'd never factored fear into it. At least not _their_ fear. 

“Oh my god,” Rhys started uselessly, eyebrows still high on his forehead, “you… you’re…”

Sasha’s sarcastic smile did nothing to hide her agitation. “Surprise!” 

“I… didn’t realize,” said Rhys, who could think of nothing better to do than state the obvious.

Sasha rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, you weren’t supposed to. Not exactly advertising it, am I?” 

She gestured sweepingly at her outfit: the high neckline of her sweater, the full-length sleeve covering only her left arm, the pants that disappeared completely into her high boots. 

“Oh,” said Rhys, feeling stupid. He tugged on his own vest, offered a grin and shrugged. “I just thought you were fashionable.”

Rhys was sure that at least deserved a grudging smile, but Sasha only looked frazzled. Compulsively tugging at the cuff of her sleeve, she paced back and forth in front of him, caught up in some internal debate Rhys wasn’t party to. 

Having stayed miraculously silent, Jack stepped forward, circling Sasha like a shark. The look he was giving her made the back of Rhys’ neck prickle.

“Hey, stop that,” said Rhys. 

Jack took a step back, hands raised in unbelievable innocence. “What, you’re not curious?” 

But Sasha looked up sharply at Rhys, eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms.

“Oh, sorry,” she said, not sounding sorry at all, “is my personal crisis bothering you?”

“No!” said Rhys quickly, while Jack smirked. “No, not you, there was—um—a fly… buzzing...” He swatted at an empty patch of air next to his ear, for effect.

“Smooth,” said Jack.

However feeble, the lie did the trick of placating Sasha. She sighed, hiding her head in her hands and giving her head a shake. “Oh, this is bad.” Oblivious to the hologram beside her, she walked right through him. “I didn’t mean to—I’ve never— _shit_.” 

Rhys frowned, feeling useless. He wanted to help, but surprise magic powers were definitely out of his wheelhouse. 

“When you say ‘never’...” His eyes widened. “Hang on, is that the first time you’ve… you know...” He waved his hand, a poor imitation of what he’d seen her do. “‘Cause, I gotta say, if I was you and I’d just discovered I had magic powers, I’d be way more—”

Sasha cut him off with a withering stare. “Of course not.” She fidgeted on the spot, self-consciously rubbing her left shoulder. “I _mean_ I’ve never done it in front of anyone else. No one knows except Fiona.” She wrinkled her nose and scowled. “And Felix. _That_ was a mistake.” 

“Oh.” Realization crept up slowly, and Rhys found himself grinning again. “So I’m the first person you’ve—”

“It was an accident,” said Sasha stubbornly, arms folded. “Don’t read into it.”

“Okay,” said Rhys, who was already five chapters in and quite enjoying the story.

“I’m serious,” said Sasha, though her voice was not as convincing as it might have been. “Everyone else who’s found out has died. Because I killed them. With my magic.”

“Got it,” he agreed, grinning even broader. 

“Oh, for the love of…” Head thrown back, Jack groaned loudly to voice his displeasure and then flickered into view beside Rhys, waving an enormous blue hand in front of his face. “Can we focus, please, Romeo? She’s a frickin’ _siren_. Do you know what that means? Ask her what she can do! Ask her what her powers are! Ask her what she knows about—”

Rhys swatted his hand back and forth through Jack’s intangible face. “Sorry,” he said to Sasha, “that annoying buzzing sound is back.”

It worked, or near enough; Jack threw up his hands and flickered away, though Rhys doubted he’d gone far. 

But Rhys’ smugness was quickly extinguished when he looked looked at Sasha. She was still on edge, checking over her shoulders like she was anticipating attack, every muscle in her body tense and ready to strike. True, the entire time he’d known her, Sasha had seemed ready to throw down at any given moment; Rhys had spent his first few hours in her presence only fifty percent sure she wouldn’t kill him at the first given opportunity. 

But this was different. She looked scared, in a way Rhys had never seen her before. It tugged on something deep in his chest.

“Hey. Sash.” He took a half-step towards her before deciding better of it; he didn’t want to end up on the receiving end of one of those slice-y energy beams. “Are you okay?”

She didn’t look at him, still scanning the forest for danger—or maybe she was just avoiding his eyes. “No one’s supposed to know,” she said quietly.

“Says who?” He tried for levity. “I mean, if I had awesome superpowers, I’d definitely tell, like, everyone—”

“Then you’re an idiot.” Now she was looking at him, her voice sharp. “All it does is put a target on your back. Did you _see_ that corpse back at the World of Curiosities? You wanna grow up trying to keep a secret on the streets in Hollow Point, trying to stay alive without drawing attention to yourself? Wondering what people might want from you if they ever found out? What bandit bosses might do to get their hands on a siren of their own? What _Hyperion_ would do?” 

In the short time he’d known them, Rhys had deduced easily that the sort of childhood Sasha and Fiona must have had was worlds apart from his own reality. He’d tried, at least abstractly, to imagine what that kind of upbringing would do to shape a child into the women he knew. He’d figured it would make them slow to trust, prickly, dubious of everyone they met. 

Looking at the anxiety and stress etched into Sasha’s young face now, he realized he’d underestimated it.

“Whoa,” he said gently, palms raised in surrender. “You’re right, I’m sorry, I didn’t think it through.” He hazarded another step closer. “But… you’re okay. I mean, it’s just me.”

He sent her what he hoped was an encouraging smile, but Sasha didn’t smile back. She worried her lip, looking not at his face but at the patch on his vest.

“You’re Hyperion,” she said quietly, like a reminder to herself, or maybe to both of them.

“Pretty sure that ship has sailed,” he answered, though he couldn’t quite shake the guilt from his voice. He tried again. “Sasha—”

“You can’t tell anyone,” she said suddenly, grabbing him by the elbow. “You have to promise me you won’t tell anyone.”

Rhys laughed a little awkwardly. “I mean, I really don’t think Vaughn—”

“ _Anyone_. I’m serious.” Her grip on his arm was now tight enough to hurt. “You can’t tell them.” Rhys pulled back on instinct, and Sasha’s grasp loosened, but her eyes stayed wide. “Please, Rhys.”

“No telling anyone you totally saved my life with your sweet magic powers, got it,” he joked. But as she let go he caught her hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll keep it to myself, Sash. Your secret’s safe with me.” He lifted his free hand and wiggled his pinky. “Promise.” 

For a split second Sasha only looked at him, uncertain and searching—and then she looped her pinky through his and gave it a shake. She rewarded him with her first real smile since her accidental display, and his heart sped up, just a little.

“Thank you,” she said honestly. Her hand lingered in his for the barest of seconds longer than necessary, the pad of her thumb skating over the knuckle of his—and then she let go, stepped back, and cleared her throat. “Um, we should get going, though. Fiona and Athena should be back by now, and the others will wonder what happened.” 

“Right,” said Rhys, who in the last thirty seconds had just about forgotten anyone else existed in the universe. “Yeah, totally.” 

Sasha started back down the path, brisk enough that he jogged to catch up. 

“You know,” he told her, “I’ve got tattoos, too.” He rolled up his cuff, revealing the top of the blue sleeve running down his left arm. “See?”

“Wow,” said Sasha, arching a playful eyebrow. “Guess we both have hidden depths.” But she lifted her arm too, pushing back her sweater to give him a glimpse of the telltale markings winding their way down her arm. “Mine glows sometimes.”

“Okay, yours is cooler,” Rhys admitted. 

“Of course it is,” Sasha agreed. She looked a little regretful as she tugged her sleeve down again. “It’s kinda too bad. I like how it looks.” 

“Well, maybe one day you can show it off.”

She snorted. “Yeah. Maybe if I ever get off this godforsaken planet.” She sighed, then shook her head, tugging at the collar of her shirt. “Um… for the record, when I say ‘don’t tell anyone’, I’m including Fiona. By the way.”

Rhys tilted his head. “I thought she already knew.”

“She knows about _me_ ,” Sasha clarified. “She doesn’t need to know that you know. She’d just be weird about it.”

“Unlike you, who’s been totally normal about it,” reasoned Rhys, and Sasha gave him a shove. “Kidding!” He couldn’t help but grin. “It’s cool, I get it, don’t want your big sister to know you’ve got a huge crush on me—”

Sasha shoved him again, hard enough that he stumbled off the path this time. “I told you not to read anything into it.” But she was grinning a little, too. “Besides. I could kill you with my magic. Make it look like a freak jellyfish accident.”

“Nah.” Rhys fell back into step beside her with his chin held high. “You like me too much.”

“I’m beginning to regret catching you,” she said, and there was definitely a grin on her face now. 

They walked the rest of the way back in companionable chatter, admiring the scenery and avoiding the plantlife. It was familiar enough that Rhys almost forgot he was chatting with someone capable of cosmic power he could barely comprehend.

Almost.

Still, as they neared the building where the others waited, Sasha reached for the door first, and then hesitated. 

“I won’t say anything,” said Rhys, before she could even ask.

“I know,” said Sasha, and it sounded like the truth. But she lingered another second, and took a deep breath. “I’m trusting you on this, Rhys.”

It wasn’t a question, simply a statement of fact, but the vulnerability on her face struck him. Unable to think of anything worthwhile to say, he only nodded.

“Okay,” said Sasha, and just like that, the vulnerability was gone, hidden again with expertise. “Let’s go.”

She started briskly down the elevator to the hallway. Rhys made it three steps before he saw Jack, lounging against the wall as though he’d been there the whole time.

“Racking up a bunch of secrets, there, aren’t’cha, cupcake?” 

Rhys glared as he walked past. “Don’t,” he muttered, low enough that Sasha wouldn’t hear.

“No, no, it’s a good thing!” Jack shoved himself away from the wall and shrugged, deceptively jovial. “It actually makes me feel a lot better about our little situation.”

Rhys rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“I’ll be honest, I was starting to doubt your commitment to our arrangement—not accepting my generous offer to help back at that Atlas base, calling me a—what was it?—‘genocidal maniac’.” He laughed, and Rhys grit his teeth. “But see, now I know you’re not gonna tell anyone, ‘cause if she finds out you shared her little secret with _me_?” Jack let the question hang unanswered, whistled low and shook his head. “Take it from me, kiddo, you do not wanna get on a siren’s bad side.”

The words were like being doused in a gallon of ice water, and Rhys stopped in his tracks. In the heat of the moment, with Sasha’s bright green eyes boring into his, Rhys hadn’t considered that his promise was broken before he’d even made it. 

Blissfully unaware of the conversation happening behind her, Sasha glanced over her shoulder and beckoned Rhys forward. “C’mon, slowpoke. The others’ll be worried.”

A guilty lump formed in his throat, and he swallowed it down, staring at his shoes. “Coming,” he told her.

“Relax, Rhysie, you don’t need to worry about me.” Jack kept pace so that he was nothing but a blue haze on the periphery of Rhys’ vision. “Who am I gonna tell?”

**Author's Note:**

> say hi over on the wasteland that is tumblr: [oodlyenough](oodlyenough.tumblr.com)


End file.
